For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher,
since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.

Monday, 25 April 2016

Twenty Minutes with Mrs. Oakentubb: Summary

Reading-Text
One, Frank
Arthur

Twenty
Minutes with Mrs. Oakentubb is a melodrama written by Frank Arthur. The
playwright keeps commendable significance in the twentieth century literature.
The play, throughout the whole process comprises conversation between two
persons. It has three characters: One woman and two men. The woman is Mrs. Judy
Oakentubb. One of the men is the husband of that woman who had been killed in a
car accident along with her daughter, presented as ‘He’. The accident was
caused by Mrs. Oakentubb’s rough and reckless driving. The other man is the
porter at the railway station where this drama takes place on a dark, cold and
stormy night.

Socially,
Mrs. Oakentubb belongs to the rich professional or business class. She is
recognized by her speech, manners and dress. The man is socially inferior to
her and seems to be a person of mediocre scale by his talk and appearance. He
is going to Stainthorpe where Mrs. Oakentubb lives. His intention is to kill
her as a revenge for the killing of his wife and a daughter. He is bitter and
unhappy man. Although Mrs. Oakentubb spent eighteen months in jail for causing
the death of two persons in a car accident. The man thinks that she has to
suffer a wild punishment. He considers that Mrs. Oakentubb had committed a
murder and the punishment for the crime was death. Now he has taken up the
cause of punishing her.

The
chance has brought them together at a lonely railway station. It is late in the
night and is severe cold. For Mrs. Oakentubb, the man is complete stranger but
for the man she is not. However, he pretends to be a stranger. They both began
to talk each other because they had to wait for twenty minutes. The train was
due to leave after this breakup to carry them to Stainthorpe.

It
is their conversation, which brings out the plot of the play. The man talks to
Mrs. Oakentubb that he is going to Stainthorpe to see one Mrs. Oakentubb, who
has killed his wife and a daughter in a car accident. Mrs. Oakentubb is
pretending to be someone else. The man tells her that he considers Mrs.
Oakentubb guilty of murder and goes on describing the circumstances in which
the accident took place.

When
Mrs. Oakentubb realized that man is bent upon executing justice by killing her,
she decides to dramatize the situation and begins to act. She tells him that
she had been under severe strains since the tragic accident took place. She was
haunted by the terrible scene. She could neither sleep nor found any rest since
then.

She
urges him to kill her and let her free from the torture and pain. On the contrary,
he wants to give her severe punishment in the most painful way. He thinks that
to let her alive would be more reasonable and torturous punishment rather than
killing her. He pockets the revolver and walk out of the room. Mrs. Oakentubb
immediately changes herself and makes fun of him. She makes mocking gestures at
him. While she is standing, he opens the door, points the gun and shoots her to
death.